CHILI — Residents voiced their concerns with the expansion of a factory at a Chili Town Planning Board meeting on May 12, with worries including light, noise and disruption to wildlife.
XLI Manufacturing is looking to more than double its existing facility on Jet View Drive, with plans for a 109,100-square-foot expansion. The space will add manufacturing and warehouse capacity, along with plans to add 40 new employees to the existing 105 workforce. XLI manufactures components for varied industries like medical diagnostics, aerospace and optics.
“This proposed expansion will allow for new cleaning applications, large-scale machining, robotic welding and other advanced technologies to support the growth of their current company operations,” said Sarah Costich, president and CEO of Costich Engineering.
The proposed expansion would add 55 more parking spaces but require a variance; the town’s parking formula requires 540 parking spaces for office and industrial use at the facility when including the proposed expansion.
The expansion would move the footprint of the facility closer to homes on Jacklyn and McNair drives, a loop of residential properties off Fisher Road and bordered by woods. Residents voiced questions and concerns about the encroachment of the manufacturing building, which would press up against the existing tree line. A row of evergreen trees would be planted to support the buffer and the project’s stormwater management plan includes an on-site retention pond.
Costich said the only additional lighting at the site will be a pole light in the parking lot and one building-mounted light over a door on the wall facing the residential properties. XLI has two shifts, though the overnight shift, 4 p.m. to 2:30 a.m., is typically a handful of employees.
Devin Emerson, who lives on McNair Drive near the buffer to XLI, said he was worried about the disturbance to wetlands and how visible the expansion would be in the winter to homes in the neighborhood.
“A lot of people walk, drive around the neighborhood,” Emerson said during the public comment period of the meeting. “It’s one of the main reasons why I actually bought my house, because I love that it was secluded, it was in a little hidden corner in the woods.”
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: XLI plan to double plant draws neighbor concerns
Reporting by Steve Howe, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
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